Hazel McCallion believes that the "topping-off" of the 56-storey Marilyn Monroe condominium is a giant step in making Mississauga a “Global City”. The mayor says the completion of the new 428-unit curvy cement and glass building is the making of an iconic attraction that will bring more boldly designed high-rises to the city and create a tourist attraction! “ This building has already set a new standard for design in Mississauga!” Mayor Hazel McCallion told a happy crowd of construction workers last week at a top-off party for the recently completed building.The mayor, sharing a stage with the top officials of Fernbrook Homes, Cityzen Development Group, Dominus Group and the Beijing based Mad Design Inc., urged the consortium to build again in her city and as soon as possible. Calling the Marilyn Monroe an icon, she expects more builders will be inspired to use eye-catching designs in future Mississauga projects.The "topping-off" ceremony – the traditional way construction crews celebrate the end of pouring concrete on a major site - was held to mark the completion of Fernbrook Homes’ Absolute 4 (the Marilyn Monroe’s official name) last Friday afternoon. Over 500 guests, most of them wearing hard hats and work boots, gathered in the building’s cavernous podium to wildly cheer on the Mayor as she signaled the end of heavy construction on the twisty shaped condo. The individual units are still to be completed, but the project is just a few months away from suite owners on the lower floors being able to move in. Heavy construction continues on Absolute 5, Marilyn’s 50-storey equally curvaceous next-door neighbour.In the growing forest of Mississauga condominium towers, the recently top-off Marilyn Monroe Building is seen as the tallest, most striking tree in the woods. Construction on Marilyn Monroe began three years ago. It is one of five buildings and townhouses that make up the Absolute project located at Hurontario Street and Burnathorpe Road in “downtown Mississauga”, adjacent to the Square One Shopping Centre.“We broke industry conventions and believe the affectionately called ‘Marilyn’ set new standards for design and certainly raises the bar for all future projects (in Mississauga),” said Sam Crignano, principal with the Toronto based Cityzen Development Group. Cityzen is a high profile real estate development firm, it and its sister company, Dominus Construction are headquartered in downtown Toronto.“The result has been a success in every regard. The number of enquires and the page of sales set new records for the Mississauga condominium market”Crignano told the Star that only 10 of the building’s 428 suites are available for purchase. He expects that Marilyn Monroe will be sold out soon. Even though no one has moved into the building, some of the units have already been flipped by their original owners, their resale price rumoured to be over $100 a square foot more than they were purchased for.“This tower and its soon to be complete companion might not have been possible in many other cities” continued Crignano. “But what we found in Mississauga was a shared vision of the future and an unwavering belief that great design is the path to creating enduring value.” Possibly inspired by the words of the late actress Marilyn Monroe – ‘Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world’ – Mayor McCallion predicts that international interest in the project and her city will only grow. “This is not the end,” she said, “ it is just the beginning.”

Cutlines: Top Right: Jiang Ping, principal of Bejing's MAD Design, spoke at the November Top-Off ceremony for Mississauga's Marilyn Monroe building. Photo by Linda Crane.Left Top: Absolute 4 and 5. The Marilyn Monroe building is the building on the left. Photo by Stephen WeirBottom Photographs - By Linda Crane. Mayor Hazel warms up the crowd.Stephen Weirwww.stephenweir.comstephen@stephenweir.com, sweir5492@rogers,com

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